On the second day of school, everybody was a.s.signed to present something interesting about science in front of the cla.s.s. Donald Grimes, thinking himself an expert on a lot of things, led off by banging two plastic toy dinosaurs against each other, making all kinds of gruesome sound effects as though it were a dramatic fight to the death.

A lot of the kids laughed, which only encouraged Donald to ham it up even more. After a good half minute or so of his goofy melodrama, he held up one of the dino toys.

"Brontosaurus," he stated with authority. "Also known as..." His face went blank. "Something with an A..."

"Anybody know?" said Mr. Eckhart.

"Apatosaurus," Martin said without hesitating.

Donald threw him a chilly glance. "Aptapottosaurus," he said. "This was one big mother dino. I mean big. Got its food by stomping on other dinosaurs."

"It did not," Martin interjected. "It was a plant eater."

"Do you mind, Tinker? This is my report."

"You're telling it wrong."

Normally Martin wouldn't challenge Donald like that, but...well, he was getting it all messed up. Somebody had to say something.

"It's all right, Martin," Mr. Eckhart said. "Let him do it."

Donald put down the apatosaurus and picked up one of his other props. "This one is called tri...tri..." He glanced at Mr. Eckhart for a hint, but all he got was a nod of encouragement. "Tricycle tops?"

"Triceratops," Mr. Eckhart corrected him.

"Triceratops," Donald said, as though he had known it all along. "Why is it called by this name? We can only guess. The point is, this baby was mean. How do we know? Well, geez. Look at the horns on that sucker. Arr, arrr, arrr!"

He jabbed the little dino in the air a few times like a knife, and the cla.s.s couldn't help but giggle. Martin and Audrey just exchanged dismissive smirks.

Donald put down the triceratops and picked up one more toy, ready for his big finish.

"Tyrannosaurus rex," he said dramatically. "Most vicious, nasty, rotten monster that ever lived. You get near one of these babies...you're lunch meat." He jammed the little dino's teeth into his neck and staggered around, emitting unearthly yowls of pain. The cla.s.s broke out in a loud chorus of laughter.

It was more than Martin could take. "That's stupid!" he shouted, even louder than the laughers. Suddenly, everybody went quiet and looked at him.

"They weren't mean," he stated with authority. "They were loyal and friendly. You just had to know how to treat them."

"Shut your yap, Tinker!" Donald snapped. "How would you know?"

"All right, all right," Mr. Eckhart interjected. "Truth is, we're not sure what they were really like. Is the show over, Donald?"

Still scowling, Donald gathered up his props. On the way back to his seat, he shot Martin a withering look.

Martin knew there would be a price to pay later, but for now he just tried to ignore Donald's frosty glare. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and looked over to see Audrey excitedly waving her hands at him and mouthing something he couldn't make out.

"Hey, Marty," said Nate Stoller, "your wife is calling you." The cla.s.s cracked up, and Audrey shrank back into her seat.

Mr. Eckhart cleared his throat loudly, quieting everybody down.

"Okay! Who's next?"

- The school day was over an hour later; kids crowded into the halls, as usual, and Martin made his customary trudge toward his locker. But he didn't get very far before Audrey came running up behind him. "Martin, wait up!"

"Hi."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"No. What?"

She leaned in and whispered intently. "Mr. Eckhart!"

"What about him?"

"He's the one we can tell, dodo!"

"What? No."

"Why not? He's the perfect one. If anybody would make sure Rufus got treated well, it's him. He would help us, and we wouldn't get in trouble."

"How do you know?"

She gave an impatient grunt. "I know, okay? Martin, you know I'm right. We have to do it!"

"Okay, okay," Martin said tautly, trying to quiet her down. "Maybe on...Thursday, we can-"

"No! Today! Now!"

"Really?"

"I've got the pictures in my locker. Come on."

Suddenly, a familiar gravelly voice thundered from down the hall. "Hey! Tinkywinks!" Donald Grimes fired up his feet and charged toward them. He was not smiling.

"Meet me at his office," Martin said hurriedly to Audrey as he took off down the hall ahead of his fast-approaching tormentor.

"Try and make me look bad, you little phlegm-wad," Donald growled as he chugged after him. But the chase didn't last long; as Donald sped past Audrey, she casually stuck out her foot, catching him just above the left ankle and sending him sprawling onto the freshly waxed floor. Martin peeked back around the corner to see Donald skidding like a penguin on an ice floe, headfirst, sliding a good ten feet. He would have gone even farther if his forehead hadn't made a direct hit on the shin of the school princ.i.p.al, Mr. Clayborne.

Mr. Clayborne was not somebody you wanted to mess with. He was well known for running a tight ship, and horseplay in the halls was one of his very top pet peeves.

Donald looked up at the scowling face six feet above him, and all he could manage was a pained, innocent grin.

Audrey, meanwhile, slipped away and headed straight for her locker.

- When Audrey and Martin arrived at Mr. Eckhart's tiny, cluttered office, he was busy packing his briefcase. He was obviously in a hurry, and barely glanced at them as they timidly stepped through the door.

"Hi, guys," he mumbled.

He didn't stop what he was doing, and Martin, thinking it must be a bad time, couldn't get the words flowing. Audrey gave him a firm elbow nudge, and that did the trick.

"Mr. Eckhart...can we talk to you for a minute?"

"I dunno, Martin. I'm overdue at the U." The U was the university down the road in Granville, where his graduate studies kept him busy when he wasn't teaching.

"It's really, really important," said Audrey.

Mr. Eckhart still didn't look at them. "What's up?"

Martin braced himself for the big announcement. "Um...remember when I asked you about lizards with three toes?"

"Yeah. Gla.s.ses. Where the heck did I...?"

"What if I told you I have one that's seven feet tall?"

"Really?" said Mr. Eckhart dully, still not paying attention.

"It's a dinosaur, Mr. Eckhart," said Audrey.

"Tyrannosaurus rex," said Martin.

"Mm-hm," said Mr. Eckhart, and a few seconds later it finally registered. He stopped what he was doing and looked at the two of them, one eyebrow up and mouth pinched to the side.

"I found this egg, and it hatched and he grew up. Well, he's growing up."

"And no one else knows about him," Audrey said, "but now he's too big for that stupid barn and we had to tell somebody."

"And we wanted it to be you," Martin added quickly, "because you would know the best thing to do with a dinosaur."

Mr. Eckhart's eyes shifted back and forth between them, his face frozen in a twisted frown. They returned his gaze nervously for what seemed to Martin like about an hour and a half. Finally, the sides of his mouth turned up ever so slightly.

"Okay, I get it. You two are funnier than I gave you credit for."

"It's not a joke!" Audrey insisted.

"I know it sounds crazy," said Martin, "but it's true, I swear!"

Mr. Eckhart resumed throwing papers into his briefcase. "Look, I don't know what you two are up to, but right now I do not-"

Audrey shoved a handful of papers in front of his face-the color printouts of the photos they had taken with Rufus.

As Mr. Eckhart took them and glanced through the first two or three, his face went through a whole series of vivid expressions that could have gotten him the lead in the school play. At first he seemed taken aback, but gradually a skeptical smirk took over.

"You guys are very good with Photoshop, I'll give you that."

"They're not fake," said Martin.

"We don't even have Photoshop," said Audrey. "Look."

Mr. Eckhart leafed through the rest of the photos, one by one. With each new picture he looked more and more confused, like he was doubting his own eyes.

Mr. Eckhart called his colleague at the U to postpone their appointment, and as he drove Martin and Audrey to the Tinkers' house, Martin told him the whole story. But Mr. Eckhart didn't seem to be buying a word of it, and the disruption to his day put him in a bit of a testy mood.

"I'm here to tell you, Martin," he said as he followed the kids across the backyard, "a sixty-five-million-year-old egg does not just thaw out and hatch. If anybody should know that, it's you."

"When you see him, you'll believe it," Martin said. They rounded the far corner of the barn and climbed down the slope toward the double doors leading to the lower level.

"Well, if this turns into a punch line, there will be major detentions in your futures, both of you."

Suddenly, Audrey let out a gasp, and she and Martin stopped in their tracks. Mr. Eckhart almost ran into them from behind.

"Oh, no!" she moaned as they stared at the scene just ten feet in front of them: a pair of wooden barn doors, hanging wide open.

Martin and Audrey ran through the doors and into the barn cellar. "Rufus?" Martin called, hoping that his scaly friend would wander out from behind a pile of junk, like he usually did.

Not this time.

Audrey and Martin ran all around the lower barn room, frantically checking every nook and possible hiding place. But it didn't take long for the horrible truth to sink in. Martin ran over to check out the metal latch on the door, and saw that it had been chewed on by a set of very sharp teeth.

"Wow. I never thought he could do that."

They both ran back outside and called into the woods. "Rufus!" they shouted, nearly in unison. The silence that greeted them in return made Martin's stomach feel like an overloaded bug jar.

"This is very, very bad," said Audrey.

Mr. Eckhart was starting to twitch impatiently. "All right, look, you two-"

"We've gotta find him," said Martin, and in a flash he and Audrey were racing into the woods.

Mr. Eckhart put on his sternest voice. "Martin!" But, seeing that he was scolding the clear September air, all he could do was throw up his hands and follow them.

He halfheartedly tried to keep up as they scurried around, calling for Rufus in all directions. Audrey was a good whistler and she tried that, too-but all that came of their combined efforts was more of that disheartening silence.

"We better split up," said Martin.

What little was left of Mr. Eckhart's patience seemed to be pretty much spent. "Okay, just hold on one second here-"

"Could you please come with me, Mr. Eckhart?" Audrey interrupted. "I don't know these woods that well."

"Oh, and I do?"

"I'll feel safer. Please?"

His mouth was open, but his vocal cords were not serving him at the moment. Maybe he was thinking of tomorrow's headline: GIRL DISAPPEARS IN WOODS; TEACHER CHARGED WITH CHILD ABANDONMENT.

"I'll meet you guys at the white rock in twenty minutes," Martin said authoritatively.

"Okay," said Audrey, and in an instant they were on their separate ways. Mr. Eckhart trudged after her, grumbling under his breath.

- Martin made his way deeper and deeper into the woods, and after a good quarter hour of shouting at the top of his lungs for his missing pet, his voice was getting hoa.r.s.e. By the time he arrived at Winoka Lake, both his energy and his spirits were sagging.